


How to Get Kicked Out of a Planned Community: A Guidebook by Steve Rogers

by lovelyavengers (fandomsandxfiles)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Mission Fic, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25927921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandxfiles/pseuds/lovelyavengers
Summary: An undercover mission has you and Steve posing as newlyweds in a seemingly perfect neighborhood, but the manicured lawns and pristine houses are also home to secrets and lies.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	How to Get Kicked Out of a Planned Community: A Guidebook by Steve Rogers

**Author's Note:**

> i made a random decision that I wanted to enter another writing challenge, so I asked some of my mutuals on tumblr and i entered two! This is for @sweaterdaddies-dumbdork's writing challenge on tumblr, but I also threw in a prompt from @buckys-other-punk's writing challenge :) 
> 
> You can also read this fic on my tumblr writing blog [@fandomsandxfiles-writes](https://fandomsandxfiles-writes.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Prompts (bolded): "So...what do we do now?" and "if I die, I'm haunting you first"

You found out about the mission because Tony was knocking on your door at six o'clock in the morning, which you did not appreciate. He barely allowed you to wake up before he was herding you off to a briefing room and dropping a file in front of you. "What's all this for?" you asked tiredly.

"You're going on a mission," he said, without further elaboration. 

"Am I going by myself?" 

"No." 

"Then who else is going?" 

"He'll be here in a few minutes." 

"Tony, I swear to god if this is some impossible task I'm going to kill you. And **if I die, I'm haunting you first.** " 

"What's this about haunting?" The door swung open and Steve walked into the briefing room, looking more awake than you felt and holding a cup of coffee. 

"Tony woke me up at the crack of dawn to tell me that I'm going on a mission but I can tell he's hiding something," you said as Steve sat down. 

"You too?" Steve asked, smiling. "I just got a message to come down here, I don't know what's going on." 

"Fine, do I have to spoon-feed both of you?" Tony asked jokingly. "Here's the deal: there's a wealthy neighborhood about half hour from here that's come under some suspicion lately. Within the last year and a half, three couples have gone missing, the latest about a month and a half ago. But about six months before that, there was a double murder. Both the husband and wife were shot point blank in their sleep, and the killer never found."

"Why are we investigating?" you asked. "It doesn't seem like something that would be our jurisdiction." 

"Two reasons," Tony said, passing you another file from across the table. You opened it, flipping through newspaper cut outs of the incidents. "One, is the fact that all the couples were living on the same street, and the house with the murder? It was also was the site of the latest disappearance. The second reason is that there's been some buzz about whether or not this is HYDRA's doing. And since SHIELD is no longer an organization, we have to pick up some of the slack. Even if it's not HYDRA, the local police department have gone nowhere with it, so we have to do everything I guess." 

"Tony, if you are going to try and tell me that the one house is haunted I'm going back to bed." 

"Do you think I would say such a thing?" You raised your eyebrows at him in response. "Okay, okay, it's not haunted. You and Capsicle here are going undercover in the neighborhood, to try and see if you can get the inside view of things. Neighborhoods like these are often territorial and secretive, so they won't tell you anything unless they think you're one of them." 

"Undercover?" you asked. "As what?" 

"Newlyweds," Steve cut in, reading from the file. "Steven and Y/N Jones, to be exact." 

"Yep!" Tony said, sliding a box across the table to both you and Steve. You opened yours to reveal a beautiful set of wedding rings, and the reality of the mission ahead started to set in.

"Let me see that file," you said, and Steve passed it to you. "We're staying in the murder house?" 

"Is that a problem?" Tony asked. "You're the one who won't believe it's haunted." 

"Well at least we'll be able to look for evidence," you said with a sigh. 

"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" Steve laughed, shooting you a grin. 

You rolled your eyes at him in response. "I guess we have to get ready to go now, don't we?" 

***

You were in your room packing up your clothes when there was a knock at the door. Thinking it was Steve or Tony with more details about the mission, you called out "It's open!" 

"So I hear you're shipping out on a mission," Sam said as he walked in. "And you get to play house with Steve." 

"Shut up about that!" you said, balling up a t-shirt and throwing it at him. "It wasn't my decision to go undercover as newlyweds!" 

"Yeah, but you're not complaining about it!" 

"Sam, I swear-" 

"Why don't you just tell him how you feel Y/N? You're mission partners and practically best friends, I really don't think your relationship would change that much if you were to get together. And then maybe you wouldn't be so pent up all the-" 

You threw another shirt at him for that. "Sam Wilson, I will not hesitate to hit you where it hurts!" 

"I'm just saying, I think he feels the same way about you, maybe this mission will force you both to confront how you feel and admit your attraction to each other." 

"Sam, I've told you this before, I have seen no evidence that Steve likes me in any way that isn't platonic."

"If something happens on this mission, I'll be there to say 'I told you so,'" he said, smiling at you. 

You balled up another shirt to throw at him, but he held his hands up in the air and left the room. Alone once again, you tried not to think about what he had said about Steve. 

***

Steve had barely pulled the car into the driveway of the house when you spotted a couple making their way towards you, big smiles plastered on their faces. You might have thought that the people in the neighborhood were just like that all the time, but the massive gift basket they were holding kind of gave away that they were going to want to talk to you. "You ready for this?" Steve asked before you got out of the car. The moving van had just pulled up, so hopefully you could use that as an excuse to keep the conversation short. 

"As I'll ever be," you responded. "Let's go meet the neighbors." 

You put on a bright smile as you got out of the car, and waved at the two people approaching. "Hi!" the woman said, as her husband held out the gift basket for you to take. "I'm Laura, and this is my husband Joe, we live next door. We're so excited to meet you!" 

You introduced yourself and Steve, making sure to use your new last name, and you offered a few more pleasantries before gracefully exiting the conversation and waving Laura and Joe off. "I don't know about you, but all I want to do is unpack and take a nap," you said to Steve once the neighbors were out of earshot. "But I have a feeling that our doorbell will be ringing almost constantly for the first few days we're here, if the neighborhood really is as 'friendly' as Tony said it would be." 

You met more neighbors as you brought in all your bags from the car, and many of them came bearing gifts. The rate it was going, you weren't going to run out of baked goods anytime soon. When you finally got everything that you needed from the car and the van, you closed the door and looked at the piles of boxes and bags that were laid out in disarray throughout the house. "I really don't want to unpack right now." 

"So we don't have to," Steve said. "The house came partly furnished, so let's say we just order a pizza and flip through the channels." 

"That sounds like an amazing idea." 

Halfway through the quest for something to watch, Steve turned to you. "We should lay out a plan for tomorrow," he said. "Then we can work on getting the information we need about the missing couples and the murder victims." 

"You're right," you said, putting your plate down and getting up. You grabbed the case file from the counter and returned to sit back on the couch. "Says here that the police questioned a few people who lived in the neighborhood, but they never came up with anything conclusive." 

"Are any of the suspects people we already met?" 

"Yeah, actually. It says that the police questioned Laura and Joe Miller and Kelly and Dan Bright after the double murder."

"Well Laura and Joe are our next door neighbors, but what about the other two? Was Kelly Bright pregnant or am I thinking of someone else?" 

"No, we didn't meet the second couple" you said, shaking your head. "It was Dana who was pregnant, her and her husband dropped off the chocolate chip cookies." 

"Why did the police question the people they did?" 

"Well, it looks like Laura and Joe were questioned because they live next door, but report just had the other two marked as 'persons of interest.' We should probably keep a lookout for any suspicious activity. One of the neighbors mentioned that they have a big neighborhood barbecue when someone new moves in, and that pretty much everyone goes. Maybe we can use that to our advantage and get some information about the people who went missing there." 

"Well hopefully they throw one for us." 

"I'm going to go on a walk through the neighborhood tomorrow," you said. "If I see anyone, I'll offhandedly mention something about it." 

Once the plan was pretty much set, you didn't do much else other than continue to flip through channels on the TV. Soon you were yawning and dozing off on the couch, and the next thing you knew, Steve was gently shaking you awake. "I"m awake!" you said, sitting up and stifling a yawn. 

"I got the sheets from our bag and made the bed up for you," Steve said. "The house only has one bed frame, so I'll just stay on the couch." 

"Steve, no," you said. "I'll sleep on the couch, it's fine, you take the bed." 

"I'm not going to let you do that," he protested. "It's fine, don't worry about me." 

"Why don't we just share the bed?" you asked out of the blue, surprising even yourself. "It was meant for two people anyway, and this way neither of us have to sleep on the couch." 

"Are you sure Y/N?" Steve asked. 

"Steve, it'll be easier for both of us if you don't argue," you said. "And besides, just in case we accidentally leave the blinds open in the living room, no one questions why one of us is sleeping on the couch when we're supposed to be sickeningly in love with each other." 

Steve sighed, but finally agreed. _This was just a mission_ , you kept telling yourself, _this didn't mean anything_. It was a strategic move. That didn't stop you from thinking about what it would be like to fall asleep in Steve's arms, rather than just laying with your back to him and feeling like you might as well be in separate rooms. 

***

Steve was already awake when you woke up the next morning, so you the bed was empty. To keep up appearances, it was decided that Steve would "go to the office" once or twice a week, which really meant he got to drive back to the compound and get some work done on other things. The neighbors already assumed that the two of you were wealthy, but if neither of you were to leave the house at all, it might be a little suspicious. He wasn't going to drive back to the compound for a few days, but there was a note on the counter saying that he went to the grocery store, so you decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.

Grabbing a water bottle, you stepped outside into the bright sunlight. You had barely gotten off your property when you heard your name, and you turned around to see Laura Miller waving at you. She was walking as well, and there was another woman there you didn't recognize. You waved back and walked over to her. "Good morning!" you said brightly. 

"Hi Y/N!" Laura chirped. "This is Clara, her and her husband live a couple houses down from us." 

"It's nice to meet you," Clara said, holding out her hand for you to shake. "I would have stopped by yesterday, but I figured you didn't need any more people bothering you when you were trying to unpack. We would have met you at the barbecue too, so we weren't too worried." 

"That's right, every time we get a new member of the neighborhood, we have a big cookout over at our house," Laura said. "It gives everyone a chance to meet the new homeowners, and it's a chance for all of us to get together and have fun." 

"Does it happen often?" you asked. "New people moving into the neighborhood?" 

"Not too often, but more people have moved in within the past year," Laura said. "You have to let me know when you and your husband are free and we'll set up a date!" 

"Of course!" you smiled. "And you let me know if you need anything and I'd be happy to help!" 

You managed to break away from Laura and Clara and take your walk through the neighborhood, taking a look around to see if anything seemed suspicious. When you got back to the house, you saw the car back in the driveway. "Steve?" you called as you opened the door. 

"Y/N, in here!" he answered from the kitchen. "Did you find anything out from your walk around the neighborhood?" 

"Not really," you admitted. "I did speak to Laura though, she wants to know the best time to set up our 'welcome to the neighborhood' barbecue. Apparently her and her husband are the ones that host them. I did meet another woman on our street though, Clara. I don't think she said her last name though." 

"That's nice," Steve said. "I didn't see anyone I recognized at the store, so hopefully we'll have more luck at this barbecue and after drinks people might let some of the neighborhood's secrets slip." 

***

There were two things that the neighborhood barbecue wasn't short on, and they were food and gossip. When you and Steve walked in with the cupcakes you had made the previous night, you could barely find a place to put them. Joe and Laura's backyard was practically bursting with people, all of them talking and laughing among themselves. You and Steve exchanged a look and then split off to try and get some information. 

Laura made her way over to you and took you on a tour, introducing you to all the neighbors you hadn't met before. It was tiring to try and remember all the names of those you hadn't met before, and the amount of times you had to talk about the weather with people made you want to just go home right there. When you finally had some time to yourself, you ended up talking to Clara, and you started to probe for information. "Everyone seems really nice so far." 

"Yeah, everyone is. I really like this neighborhood, and part of it definitely has to do with the people," she said, smiling. "But it does wear off sometimes." 

"Wear off?" Now you were getting somewhere. Hopefully Clara would tell you something that could point you in the direction of a suspect, or even the killer themselves.

"Yeah, everyone puts on a smiley face for each other, but there are people here who definitely don't like each other." 

"Anyone in particular that comes to mind?" you asked. 

"There aren't any ongoing feuds right now, but there have been," she answered. "The couple who lived in your house before you did, they were having an argument with the Brights." 

"The couple who was murdered?" 

"No, there was another owner between you and the murder victims. I'm not really sure what happened to them, I think they just up and left. But they wanted to put a tree in their front yard, and Dan Bright didn't want them to. Said it would 'ruin the view' of the neighborhood. And no one here really knows Kelly and Dan that well. I'm surprised they even showed up today honestly. They mostly just keep to themselves." 

"Interesting," you said. The other couple who owned the house between you and the murder victims had actually been the latest ones to disappear, but it was odd that no one seemed to realize that they were officially marked as missing. "Do you think the couple that was murdered was killed by someone in the neighborhood?" 

"I don't know," Clara said, shaking her head. "It happened at night so I guess it could have been a robbery gone bad, but at the same time I don't think I'd be surprised if it turned out that someone here killed them. As much as it may seem, this place definitely isn't perfect." 

Other than your enlightening conversation with Clara, you didn't find out any other information at the barbecue, and you wouldn't know if Steve found anything out until you got home later and you could talk without the danger of people overhearing. A little later, you were sitting with a group of neighbors in chairs around the fire pit. Steve pulled up a chair close to you and handed you a bottle of water. Laura smiled at you. "You know for newlyweds, you two aren't that lovey-dovey," she said. 

Internally you started freaking out. The reason that you and Steve weren't always all over each other was because you weren't actually together, but you didn't dare say that and blow your cover. Hopefully, your face didn't give away the pure terror that you were feeling. 

"We were trying to be more considerate," Steve said, taking the attention away from you. "I know that PDA bothers some people." 

"You don't have to worry about that!" Laura said, smiling. "You're newlyweds, it's understandable if you're all over each other at times." 

A few more exchanges of conversation passed, but you didn't really know what was going on until you realized that they wanted you and Steve to kiss. Steve was trying to gracefully back out, but you knew the neighbors weren't going to be satisfied until they got what they wanted. So you scooted your chair closer to him, grabbed his face, and planted a big kiss right on his lips. You heard the neighbors whoop in the background, but you weren't really focused on that. You were too busy hoping that Steve understood that this was for the mission and that he didn't read too much into it. 

You were pretty sure he got the premise of the kiss though, because he did kiss back. And damn was he a good kisser. When you broke apart, Steve had a tinge of blush on his face, but he didn't say anything else. Weirdly enough, the conversation had already changed topics and it felt like the neighbors barely even noticed. You however, couldn't stop thinking about it. 

When you finally got back to your house, you didn't want to address the kiss with Steve, but you knew you kind of had to. And you didn't know what to say to him to start that conversation. "I'm sorry," is what you ended up blurting out, and you cringed the second you said it. 

"You're sorry about what?" Steve asked, confused. 

"For kissing you, at the barbecue. I just got nervous and the neighbors weren't letting it go and-" 

"Don't worry about it," he cut you off. "You did what you had to do to keep our cover, I'm not going to hold that against you."

"So you're not mad?" 

"Mad? Of course not! We're friends Y/N, and we're mission partners. It was just something we had to do for this mission, I'm not going to read too much into it." 

"Yeah, you're right," you said. "It was just for the mission." 

But that didn't stop you from replaying the kiss over and over in your head until the minute you fell asleep.

***

The next morning, you woke up with a strange weight on your side. Blinking your eyes open, you shifted slightly before realizing what it was. Steve's arm. And right now, he was fast asleep and spooning you. You froze, not knowing what to do. You didn't want to make things more awkward, especially after the kiss last night, but at the same time there was a part of you that was more than content with your current sleeping position. You didn't have that much time to think though, because Steve shifted slightly and woke up. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Y/N," Steve said, immediately getting up off the bed. "I must have rolled over in my sleep." 

"Steve, it's okay," you said, even if your insides were currently screaming because of your crush on him. "It was an accident. And we've fallen asleep on the couch together how many times? It's really not that big of a deal." 

"Yeah, you're right," he finally said. "Sorry." 

Breakfast was mostly silent, until you started to talk about the case. "Did you find out anything from the neighbors at the barbecue yesterday?" you asked. 

Steve shook his head. "Nothing important I'm afraid," he said. "The people I talked to weren't that forthcoming. Did you get anything?" 

"Not as much as I would have liked, but I did find out some things," you said. "Apparently the couple who went missing right before we got here were having an argument with Dan Bright. They wanted to put a tree in their front yard, but Dan said it would ruin the neighborhood. And that Kelly and Dan don't really interact with the rest of the people living here, they kind of keep to themselves." 

"I wonder if that's why the police questioned them," Steve said. "If the couple who was murdered was having a similar argument with them, it could be a motive."

"What do you think we should do about it?" you asked. 

"I'm going to contact the locale police and ask them why they questioned Dan Bright and why the investigation never went anywhere," Steve said. 

"That's a good idea," you said. "I'll keep watch here and see if I can find anything else out." 

You tried to get more information from the other neighbors, but either no one knew anything else or the entire neighborhood had sworn never to talk about the murder or the disappearances. You were laying on the couch when Steve walked in. "Did you get any information?" you asked. 

"Some, but I'm not sure what to make of it," he said. "The police said that they were told that the couple who lived in the house before us, the ones that disappeared - they were planning on moving and had already set up a real estate agent." 

"That's news to me," you said. "Because they were fighting with Dan Bright about putting a tree up in their yard, and that doesn't seem like something you do if you're planning to move." 

"Do you think it could have something to do with property value?" Steve asked. "One thing I did learn yesterday is that there's an unofficial running competition between a few of the neighbors about who's house has the highest value. If they thought they could get more money from the house because of the tree, that could be a reason they were looking to put it in so close to them selling the house." 

"Did you happen to hear who's house is worth the most?" you asked. "Because if it's Kelly and Dan Bright's house, then it definitely makes sense for them to be suspects." 

"It's not them, apparently Laura and Joe have the highest property value right now," Steve said. "And there's another thing the cops told me - the reason that Kelly and Dan weren't investigated further was because they were out of town for both the murder and the night the other couple disappeared. They had train stubs and everything, there was no way they could have had anything to do with it." 

"What you're saying is that we have no suspects anymore," you said. **"So... what do we do now?"**

"I'm not sure," Steve said. "If this has to do with property value, I don't see what we _can_ do." 

That's when you got an idea. "If the last two disappearances were over property value, doesn't that mean that someone wants the house?" you asked. "And I bet whoever it is would be really mad at us if we started not taking care of the house." 

"I don't follow," Steve said. 

"We know by now that this neighborhood is obsessed with how everything looks. So if we didn't mow the lawn as often as we should, we left the garbage can on the curb a little too long, or we got one of those hideous plastic lawn flamingos, it might make them angry." 

"Angry enough for them to try and come after us?" 

"I guess we'll find out." 

***

So you and Steve waited. You went out an bought ugly lawn decorations (including a pretty large plastic lawn flamingo), "accidentally" left the garage door open from time to time, let the grass in the front yard overgrow compared to the perfectly manicured lawns all around you, and sometimes parked the car on a slant in the driveway rather than the perfectly straight way all the other houses had it. But that wasn't really going to anger the murderer enough, so you had an idea to kick it up a notch. But Steve wasn't as easy to convince. "You want to basically invite ourselves to get murdered?" 

"We'll be fine, we're avengers for pete's sake!" you said. "I'm just saying that if we leave the door cracked open a few nights it might prompt whoever it is to come inside and try to kill us. What we're doing isn't exactly lowering the long term property value, but another double murder will do it nicely." 

"But isn't the competition about who has the highest property value?" Steve asked. "A low one isn't going to help us." 

"Unless whoever killed that couple, and likely the other couple that 'disappeared' wanted the value of the house to go down not up, so they could buy it!" you said, eyes widening with realization. "Gruesome murders definitely make a place less marketable." 

Finally, Steve agreed to basically offer yourselves up as bait, and the plan was set into motion. You would leave the door cracked ever-so-slightly at night. And after about a week, the murderer finally took the bait. You were laying in bed with Steve when you heard the door creak open and faint footsteps on the floor. Steve heard them too, and you both quietly got out of bed and stood on opposite sides of the doorway, waiting for whoever it was to make their way up to your bedroom. 

The door slowly creaked open, and you saw the flash of a gun and a tall shape, so you just reacted. Delivering a strong kick to the stomach, the figure doubled over and let out a deep groan. Steve was able to grab the gun from him and you pulled your own gun from the nightstand next to your bed. Then the figure got up, and you saw who it really was. "Joe Miller?" you asked, completely dumbfounded. 

Joe took a step closer to you, but you clicked the safety off on your gun and he stopped. "Why did you break into our house? Did you kill the other couples who lived here? The one that disappeared and the one that was shot?" 

He said nothing, just continued to stare at you with a villainous look in his eye. "Alright, I've had enough," Steve said, knocking him over the head with his own gun and knocking him out. "I'm going to call the police, and then Tony. We can finally get this case all wrapped up." 

***

It turned out that Joe and Laura wanted to buy the house you were staying in so they could knock it down and basically double their property, but they didn't have enough money to buy it outright. But with a couple of gruesome murders and a disappearance in the house, the value would be reasonable enough for them to buy it. Joe confessed to killing both couples who lived there before you, and was convicted. Laura was also convicted for conspiring with Joe. 

After that, everything seemed to go back to normal. You moved back into the compound, and returned to your normal way of life. But there was something that you missed about being undercover, and it was the casual intimacy with Steve. The time you woke up snuggled together, the casual touches that you did to convince the neighbors, the evening ritual of watching TV on the couch together, you missed that. And you didn't want to admit it, but your crush on Steve had gotten much worse. 

It all came to a peak one night, when you were sitting in the kitchen at one in the morning, staring into space with a glass of water in front of you. You didn't hear Steve come in, but he turned the light on and tapped you on the shoulder. "You okay Y/N?" he asked. 

"Are you?" 

"Yeah, I was just getting some water," he said. "You're the one sitting here in the dark." 

"Sorry," you said, shaking your head. "I guess I'm just tired." 

"Then why don't you go to bed?" 

"I can't sleep," you said, getting up. "I don't know why, but I haven't been able to sleep that well since we got back from the mission. I'll get over it I guess." 

You had barely taken a few steps towards the door when he appeared in front of you and blocked your path. Seconds later, his lips were on yours, no neighbors watching this time. 

You immediately kissed him back, even if you weren't sure why he was kissing you. When you broke apart, you were panting slightly. "What was that for?" 

"I think I know why you can't sleep," he said. "Because I haven't slept well either, not since you stopped sleeping beside me. And we danced around it before but I can't take this anymore, I'm in love with you Y/N. And I need you to know." 

You were practically crying now. "I love you too," you managed to choke out. 

So he kissed you again. "Come to bed with me," he said softly. "I need to be near you again." 

"You don't even have to ask." 

_\- the end -_


End file.
